I have many fond memories of Mark Sprague's Pony Platforming Project series, and the first game in the series happens to be the subject of my very first review on Equestria Gaming. However it has been over half a year since the third game was released, and I had somehow nearly forgotten about the series when Mark sent me a couple emails saying that the wonderful folks over at The Brony Show had played a demo of the unreleased fourth game and gave us permission to put the entire series up on the Arcade (yay!). He also let me try out the tech demo and while I'm not allowed to share it with you folks I can tell you a little bit about the game and show you a couple screenshots. Of course you could always watch episode 76 of The Brony Show and skip ahead 32 minutes for the interview/gameplay footage, but in case you don't want to sit through all that you can head on below the break and see what we've got.
Minty Fresh Adventure II takes place after A Canterlot Wedding pt. 2 in which the brainwashed bridesmaids Colgate, Lyra, and Twinkleshine are distracted by the thrown bouquet and throw themselves into the depths of the cave to find it. Being disposable background ponies nopony sends out a searching party for them, so they'll have to make their way out of another cave filled with monsters who probably like nothing more then the taste of canned unicorn meat. As to what else the story consists of I have no idea, but given that an unfinished Cerberus was exhibited I'm guessing that Tartarus might be visited or referenced ingame.
In its current state the demo lacks enemies and just features a couple locations that you can walk around in, but it already has all three characters working and some really sweet tilesets. I'd definitely say that Mark has gotten better at properly utilizing parallax scrolling since the last entry, and it makes the environments feel less static then before. New to the series is a spellcasting system, with which each character can use their special abilities by pressing the C key to open up a menu. Most of the spells aren't usable just yet such as Lyra's telekinetic hand, but an OoT-style harp is usable and lets the player play songs that will effect the gameplay to a certain degree. Opening the pause menu also reveals that RPG-style equipment and levels are planned to be implemented, which should add a rather interesting dynamic to the series.
Well, there's not really much more that I can say about the game except that I am very impressed with it and I'm looking forward to reviewing the final product. If you want to ask Mark questions about his game or chat with fellow players you can visit the game's PonyChan thread over at http://www.ponychan.net/chan/collab/res/36324.html. In the meantime have some Lyra on her hind legs!
Well, there's not really much more that I can say about the game except that I am very impressed with it and I'm looking forward to reviewing the final product. If you want to ask Mark questions about his game or chat with fellow players you can visit the game's PonyChan thread over at http://www.ponychan.net/chan/collab/res/36324.html. In the meantime have some Lyra on her hind legs!
